August 22, 2010

Barrow Is at Home in Victory

The Barrow High Whalers were back in their comfort zone Saturday, rolling to a 42-22 victory over the Valdez Buccaneers in the Pipeline Trophy game at Cathy Parker Field.

The trophy represents the Alaska prep teams at opposite ends of the 800-mile Trans-Alaska Pipeline, which starts at the Arctic Ocean east of Barrow and ends at the Gulf of Alaska at Valdez.

According to Barrow resident Budd Goodyear, who supplied the Wiz with photos from the game, the temperature at kickoff was 37 with an east wind at 15 mph. There was a light drizzle and mist during much of the first half when visibility decreased to less than a quarter mile.

A week earlier, Barrow played in blistering 80-degree conditions in a 39-0 loss to Eielson, which is located on Eielson Air Force base southeast of Fairbanks. "We had a couple of guys cramping up, and a couple of guys just out of it, they didn’t know what was going on. We had a bunch of players puke," Whaler quarterback Eddy Benson said.

No such problem Saturday, as Barrow (2-1) quickly took the lead against Valdez (1-2), which was coming off a 28-20 victory against Monroe Catholic, its first win in more than two seasons.

In the top photo, Buccaneer quarterback Max Duffy tries to hand the ball to running back Jake Kendall in the second quarter. In the bottom photo, Valdez's Christian Duffy battles Barrow's James Snow for the ball.

Barrow's season reaches the midpoint next Saturday with a game at Kodiak. Then the team plays Seward in its final home game of 2010. The Whalers close with road games at Monroe, Nikiski and Delta.